
RIBUTE 



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iWassac|)usetts f^istorical ^ocietj 



THROP. 



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TRIBUTES 



TO THE MEMORY 



OF 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP, 



^ BY 



C!)e iHassadjusetts; i^istoncal ^ocietp, 



December 13, 1894. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

1894. 



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SEntbevsitg Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



CONTENTS. 



Remarks by page 

George E. Ellis 5 

Lucius R. Paige 11 

Resolutions of the New York Historical Society .... 12 

Remarks by 

Charles C. Smith 13 

Samuel A. Green 16 

Henry Lee 20 

Hamilton A. Hill 24 

William Lawrence 28 

Charles Francis Adams 31 

Letter of George F. Hoar 39 



i^a^^acl^u^ett^ i^i^torical ^ociet]?* 



DECEMBER MEETING, 1894. 

The stated meeting was held on Thursday, the 13th instant, 
at three o'clock, p. m. ; the President, Dr. George E. Ellis, 
in the chair. There was an unusually large attendance of 
members, as it was understood that the time would be 
specially devoted to tributes to the memory of the late Hon. 
Robert C. Winthrop, who had died since the preceding 
meeting, in his eightj'-sixth year.^ 

After the reading of the record of the last meeting, the 
President said that, in accordance with a vote of the Coun- 
cil, the regular order of business would be laid aside, and that 
there would be no communications of the usual character. At 
the close of the meeting some votes which it would be necessary 
to pass at the present time would be offered by the Treasurer. 
He then said : — 

We have with us here to-day the remembrance only of an 
associate so long identified with these rooms, and so valued 
and honored by us as one who brought to the Presidency of 
this Society distinctions won in the highest ranges of public 
service. There are many places, scenes, and fellowships in 
which the career and qualities of Mr. Winthrop will be re- 
viewed and commemorated. His life, lengthened through the 
fullest span of years till its springs were exhausted, gave him 

1 Mr. Winthrop was born in Milk Street, Boston, May 12, 1809, and died at 
90 Marlborough Street, Boston, November 16, 1894. 



b TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

space for the exercise of his rich endowments, attainments, and 
accomiilishments in many and varied fields of elevated distinc- 
tion. His full career was divided, in nearly equal terms of 
years, into three widely different forms of service and experi- 
ence. In very early manhood he came into public life under 
the most favoring influences of opportunity and popularity. 
With a fine personality, gifted in presence and in speech, 
highly cultivated in scholarship, literary and classical, with 
pre-eminence in family and social position, he was courted and 
honored by rapid advancement, in civil, military, and political 
offices, in his native State, He justified the partiality shown 
to him by his full ability to meet all expectations, by his eleva- 
tion of character, his talents, aptitudes, and eloquence, on 
many exacting occasions. 

The second strongly marked period of his career was that 
which found him in honored positions in our national legisla- 
ture, in the convulsions and distractions of the most perilous 
struggle in the life of our country, a storm in which two seas 
met. It was a time and an occasion of trial, with glooms and 
catastrophes, through which no earnest and prominent respon- 
sible actor passed unscathed by party heats, acrimony, and 
challenging of principle or courage. Mr. Winthrop's tempera- 
ment and his instructed judgment prompted him to stand for 
conciliation and peace to the utmost edge of the alternative 
presented to our country. The alternative being decided, a 
fervid and steadfast patriotism guided his course, without pas- 
sion or bitterness, till the issue closed. Privileged are those 
among us who have lived only after that conflict. For those of 
us who passed through it the best we can now do is no longer 
to revive or agitate those strifes, but to reserve them for quiet 
hours of reading and thought. It was among the privileges of 
his lengthened life that Mr. Winthrop survived not only all 
his leading contemporaries, but also the most embittered 
memories, raisjudgments, and alienations arising from them. 
Such of them as concerned himself were kindly reviewed and 
conciliated. In the serenity and calm of advancing years, the 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 7 

memory of them came to him only with gentle speech and 
judgments of charity. Politics exempted him from choosing 
place or responsibility in after contentions of parties. 

The third period of Mr. Winthrop's life was that in which he 
was best known to most of you here. It has been, in the main, 
one of retired dignity, — the statesman's, the scholar's, the 
honored citizen's years of retrospect and repose. Yet it has 
been by no means an idle term, enriched as it was by labors of 
the mind and pen. Our last great bereavement as a Society 
took from us that loved and gifted man to whom all bright 
occasions made their appeal for a Poem. To Mr. Winthrop 
like appeals were made for Prose. Besides the multiplied 
occasions on which, with learning, grace, and felicitous 
speech, he met the constant course of time in events, with 
successive actors, it was his privilege to rehearse and glorify 
the four most signal incidents in our national history, — the 
Plymouth pilgrimage, the Centennial of Independence, the 
triumph at Yorktown, and the dedication of the Washington 
Monument. More than one hundred and fifty of our own 
countrymen, of various distinctions, besides many of eminence 
abroad, have received from his pen biographical or memorial 
tributes. From the four published volumes of his orations, 
addresses, and speeches, might be culled a well-nigh continu- 
ous history, narration, or relation of the chief incidents, local 
and national, in our annals, interspersed with the agency and 
influence of leading characters. In the wide and comprehen- 
sive range of benevolent and philanthropic methods which are 
in action so vigorously in our own privileged community, his 
years of retirement were most assiduously engaged. His name 
and his contributions are mentioned in connection with each 
and all of them, either as the official head in their manasre- 
ment or as a generous patron. Our best organized charitable 
institution and method, Bible and other religious societies, the 
Children's Hospital and other noble objects, engaged his devo- 
tion and oversight. Chief among them was one most dear to 
him. 



8 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

It is well known, at least to some of us here, that after 
that philanthropic banker, George Peabody, had exercised his 
own judgment in disposing his munificent benevolence in Eng- 
land, he visited his native country with the intent of dividing 
a yet larger sum for like objects here. He found that he 
needed not only suggestions, but discerning and wise coun- 
sel, intelligent advice. This he sought and received from Mr. 
Winthrop, his close friend for many years, of whose charac- 
ter and qualities he had the highest estimate. The largest gift 
our Society had up to that time received, in money, from any 
individual donor was that of Mr. Peabody ; and he wished 
it understood, not being himself a votary of history, that his 
gift was wholly a personal testimony to our President. To 
the last month of his life, with its feebleness and its burdens, 
Mr. Winthrop gave his absorbed zeal and his patient oversight, 
in supervision and in detail, to the administration of the great 
Peabody Education Fund for the South. It was more than 
a surmise for some of us, that Mr. Winthrop's love and labor 
in that service were moved by a sympathetic desire to heal 
the wounds of a desolating strife. 

The chief matter for recognition by us here in the long 
career of our late associate, in the wide range of his accom- 
plishments and interests, is his connection with and his 
great services to this Society. More than once, in pleasant 
private converse with him in his later years, he said to 
me that the place he has filled here, with its duties and 
opportunities, had furnished many of the highest pleasures 
and satisfactions of his life. As a member of the Society 
for more than half of the century of its existence, and its 
President for thirty years, only our older members are fully 
informed how much the Society, in its present vigor and 
activity and resources, is indebted to his wise promptings 
and oversight. His family name, from that noble, honored, 
and revered leader and Governor of this M'ilderness Colony 
who first bore it, with its gatherings of repute and esteem 
for generations, might indeed have fitly entered into the 



ROBERT C. WINTHEOP. 9 

corporate title of this Society. The most precious relic in 
the manifold treasures of our cabinet — answering to the 
saintly deposit in an old shrine — is the autograph history 
or journal of Governor John Winthrop, who was more than 
the Moses of what is now our beloved State ; who to good- 
ness and purity and wisdom added full ability, fidelity, and 
consecrated devotion to his high enterprise. Some three-and- 
thirty years ago Mr. Winthrop succeeded in rescuing from 
comparative oblivion in Connecticut an exceptionally large 
collection of ancestral manuscripts, which among its priceless 
contents disclosed papers bearing tenderly pathetic evidence 
of the whole-souled consecration of John Winthrop to that 
exigent enterprise. They showed that in parting with ma- 
norial and other property in dear old England and in investing 
all his means in this Colony, he burned his bridges behind 
him, severing every tie to his native land, and yielding every 
purpose of returning there again, as did some of his original 
associates, to his sad regret. In the same collection were found, 
as his Lares and Penates, his treasured ancestral and family 
papers, reaching back in their dates and subjects to a period 
before the unveiling of this New World. As one of the three 
most opulent of the associates, he gave his all to the enter- 
prise so exhaustively that when he died the Colony assumed 
gratefully the guardianship and support of his fatherless and 
portionless young boy. Besides papers of his father and 
grandfather, and his own, there were later ones of his 
sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons, including a mass of 
correspondence of a miscellaneous character, concerning and 
revealing interesting personal and historical information of 
nearly every individual known and active in our first cen- 
tury. Besides original papers of great variety and value 
scattered through all our published volumes, six of them are 
wholly filled with materials fitly bearing the name of Win- 
throp. We recall with what modest prefaces on his own 
part our late President from time to time communicated to 
us some illuminations of the past from those time-stained 



10 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

records. Among them is one which as we take it in hand 
seems, us by an electric spark, to revive its message of tender 
sorrow and sympatliy from the long past. It is a letter 
written in Governor Winthrop's house (on the site of the 
Old South Meeting House) on the day of his death, March 
26, 1649, signed by magistrates and ministers, and addressed 
" To our deare and honoured friend John Winthropp. Esq. 
at Pequod." It was to be carried by an Indian runner, 
" Nahawton, whom they did esteeme a Trustie and swift 
messenger." Borne through forest trails, across bogs and 
streams, it conveyed to the son the tidings of his father's 
death. Every word of that letter seems to carry with it the 
tears and tributes of hearts "to the precious account and 
desert " of the venerated man whom they solemnly mourned. 
They proposed to delay the " funeralls " for seven days, that 
the son might be present and have "the ordering" of them. 
It is grateful to know that the runner and the letter fulfilled 
their purpose. 

I had occasion when our late President resigned that oflBce 
to make a brief rehearsal here of the zeal and devotion, so 
faithful to us, which he has given to this Society, to its 
revived activity, to the increase, development, and use of its 
resources. My words then are on our records. 

Since he fell back into the ranks as an associate, he has 
given us many tokens of the strength of the ties which bound 
him to us. Many things of value, for shelf, cabinet, and 
record, with his own comments and interpretation, enrich our 
stores. As long as the burden of increasing years allowed, 
borrowing strength from his wishes, he climbed these stairs, 
and took his wonted place among us, seldom without gift or 
helpful words. Of his courtesy, urbanity, and dignity of 
mien you were all observers, and will keep the memory of 
them. Some among us have expressed a mistrust lest the 
once familiar bearing and style for the conventional term, 
"a Gentleman," might yet fall in with the "Antiquities" 
collected here. We all of us know one who bore and graced 
that title. 



ROBERT C, WINTHROP. 11 

The Recording Secretary, Rev. Edward J. Young, then 
read a letter from Rev. Dr. Lucius R. Paige, now in his ninety- 
third year, who was not able to be present, together with some 
remarks which he had intended to offer at the meeting. Dr. 
Paige's letter and remarks are as follows : — 

Cambridgeport, Dec. 12, 1894. 
Dear Sir, — Fearing that I may be unable to attend the Society 
meeting to-morrow, and acting upon your suggestion, I forward, here- 
with, a copy of what I intended to say if I had the opportunity. 

Truly yours, 

Lucius R. Paige. 
Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D. 

Mr. President, — I shall not attempt to delineate the charac- 
ter of Mr. Winthrop as a scholar, an orator, or a statesman, 
but shall only speak briefly of him as a personal friend. Like 
yourself, Mr. President, and several of our associates, both Mr. 
Winthrop and myself traced a lineal descent from Governor 
Thomas Dudley. Whether this remote kinship had any in- 
fluence on me, I know not ; but I do know that on my first 
introduction to him, I was conscious of some peculiar attrac- 
tion, which became stronger and stronger as our acquaintance 
ripened. No cloud ever cast a chilling shadow on us. I never 
failed to receive a cordial greeting when we met ; and our birth- 
day and other written salutations have not been interrupted 
for many years, I need not say that such friendly intercourse 
was more and more prized by me, as the infirmities of age in- 
creased, and other sources of happiness diminished. I have 
had my full share of the sorrows allotted to those who attain 
old age. One by one, a large proportion of my old friends 
have left me to deplore their loss. Especially is this true in 
regard to this Society. Of all those who were members at the 
time of my election, you, Mr. President, are now the only sur- 
vivor ; and Mr. Saltonstall alone remains with us of those who 
were elected during the next fifteen years. Indeed, of all our 
associates, more than one hundred in number, who became 
members during the first half of my term of membership, only 



12 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OP 

fifteen remain among the living. With many of the departed 
I enjoyed an intimate acquaintance, and I deeply lamented 
their loss ; but I may surely be pardoned for saying that the 
death of no other of the whole number has affected me so 
painfully as that of Mr. Winthrop. 

Mr. Young also read the following resolutions, which had 
been adopted by the New York Historical Society, and trans- 
mitted to tliis Society : — 

New York Historical Society. 

At a stated meeting of the Society, held on Tuesday evening, Dec. 
4th, 1894, 

The President of the Society, the Hon. John A. King, announced, 
with appropriate remarks, the death of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, 
LL.D., an Honorary Member of the Society, and submitted the follow- 
ing minute for record, which was unanimously adopted : — 

Since our last meeting the Society has learned with deep regret of 
the death, in Boston, Mass., on the 16th day of November, 1894, of the 
late Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D., an Honorary Member of this Society 
since the 4th of January, 1859, when he was elected upon the motion 
of the late John Romeyn Brodhead, LL.D. 

Mr. Winthrop was for more than a generation the distinguished 
President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and was honorably 
connected with many kindred institutions, national, historical, literary, 
and philanthropical. 

It is therefore 

Resolved, That the New York Historical Society, in thorough appre- 
ciation of the pure and high character of its late Honorary Member ; 
and in recognition of his great eminence as a Statesman, Scholar, 
Orator, Philanthropist, and as a Christian Gentleman, desires, in offer- 
ing this tribute of unusual respect to his memory, to bear testimony to 
the serious loss sustained by the community and the whole nation in 
the withdrawal from our midst of a citizen who had been so distin- 
guished, and of such public benefaction, during a long life, which had 
been graciously extended far beyond the fourscore. 

Resolved^ That a record of these proceedings be transmitted to the 
family of the deceased, and also to the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
Extract from the minutes. 

Andrew Warner, Recording Secretary. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 13 

Mr. Charles C. Smith, having been called on, said : — 

None of the older members of this Society can have come 
here to-day without a deep feeling of the services rendered 
to it by our late distinguished associate. Certainly no one 
who was privileged to sit with him at this table can look back 
on his Presidency with any doubt as to the place he must 
always hold in our annals. Of those who served with him on 
Committees of Publication I am the sole survivor ; but there 
too he left his strong impress as a working member, to which 
I gladly bear testimony. 

Mr. Winthrop was elected a member of the Historical Soci- 
ety in October, 1839, in place of that accomplished gentle- 
man, the Hon. William Sullivan ; and fifteen or sixteen years 
later, when he stood twenty-fourth on our roll, he became 
President as the successor of the Hon. James Savage, then 
perhaps the highest living authority on New England history. 
Of the ofiicers elected on that day, one only is now living, our 
venerable and valued associate. Rev. Dr. Paige ; but among 
them were three men whose names should always be held in 
honor for long, faithful, and efficient service performed here, 
— Charles Deane, Richard Frothingham, and Chandler Rob- 
bins. Sixty-four years had passed since Jeremy Belknap and 
his seven associates met at Mr. Tudor's house in Court Street 
to organize this Society, and the highest expectations of our 
founders had been more than realized. A library of manu- 
scripts and books, now of priceless value, had been gathered ; 
a part of the estate on which this building stands had been 
bought, and thirty-two volumes of Collections had been 
printed. But with Mr. Winthrop's election to the Presidency 
a new era opened. A fresh interest was given to the monthly 
meetings, and a larger attendance of members was seen. 
With the Annual Meeting held in April, 1855, when he first 
became President, began the publication of the Proceedings, 
which has been continued without interruption down to the 
present time ; and before he left the President's chair two 



14 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

volumes of Early Proceedings were prepared and printed by 
a committee of which Mr. Deane was chairman. In the 
mean time seventeen volumes of Collections, two volumes of 
a Catalogue of the Library, and a volume of Lowell Lectures, 
by members of the Society, with an introductory address by 
the President, were added to our previous publications. 
Mr. Winthrop had been a working member himself, and he 
had inspired others to work. The gift of the magnificent 
Dowse Library, mainly by the intervention of a lamented 
associate, George Livermore, largely increased our literary 
treasures. The purchase of this estate was completed, and 
the present building was erected. This was not all. Of the 
twelve funds now on the Treasurer's books, eight were received 
during his Presidency ; and it is within my own knowledge, as 
it is within the knowledge of others, that for the largest and 
most useful of them we were indebted to our benefactor's 
grateful regard for Mr. Winthrop, rather than to an interest 
in historical studies. To this I might perhaps add that all the 
gifts aggregated under the title of General Fund were also 
received during the same period. By his last will Mr. Win- 
throp gave to this Society a generous bequest, without restric- 
tions as to its use, which has already been paid over to the 
Treasurer. At the proper time the Society will be asked to 
set this sum apart as a special fund, the income to be ex- 
pended as the Council may direct. There can be no impro- 
priety in adding that Mr. Winthrop was not possessed of a 
large property, and that this bequest must therefore be counted 
among the most striking proofs of his lifelong interest in our 
work. 

Fortunate in his birth, fortunate in his education, fortunate 
in his training on larger fields of endeavor, and in his wide 
acquaintance with men and affairs, Mr. Winthrop brought to 
the Presidency of this Society qualifications which ripened 
and expanded down to the very close of his service. There 
never can have been a more dignified or more graceful presid- 
ing officer. But he did not confine himself to a discharge of 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 15 

the routine duties of the chair. It used to be said of him, in 
no unfriendly or critical sense, that he magnified his office. 
His sketches of our deceased associates read here, as one by 
one their names were erased from the roll of living members, 
form a unique and varied portrait-gallery ; and not less inter- 
esting and valuable were the personal reminiscences with 
which from time to time he enriched our Proceedings, and 
the original documents drawn from that vast storehouse of 
historical materials fortunately acquired by him many years 
ago. Many of us will recall with pleasure the special meetings 
of the Society held at his houses in Boston and at Brookline, 
and the frequent occasions, in summer and in winter, when 
the same elegant hospitality was extended to the officers and 
active members in smaller numbers. 

At no time did Mr. Winthrop take a deeper interest in the 
work of the Society than in the last years of his Presidency, 
or find a greater satisfaction in the discharge of his official 
duties ; but he was especially solicitous that his term of 
service, which far exceeded that of any of his predecessors, 
should not be too much prolonged. In more than one year 
he conferred with me on the question whether the time had 
not come for him to withdraw from the chair. There could be 
but one answer to that question. It was clearly and unhesi- 
tatingly given ; and it foreshadowed the unanimous judgment 
spread on our records at the Annual Meeting in 1885, when 
it was announced that he had declined to be a candidate for 
re-election. Since that meeting more than one third of the 
names now on our roll of living members have taken the places 
of those who could bear personal testimony to the value of 
Mr. Winthrop's services. The record and the tradition of 
those services, however, will always remain among the pre- 
cious inheritances of this Society. 

In what has now been said I have purposely dealt only with 
Mr. Winthrop's relations to this Society. But it must not be 
forgotten that his Presidency was coincident with his greatest 
intellectual activity in the same field outside of our little com- 



16 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

pany. With possibly one exception all those great addresses 
which gave him a foremost place as a master of commemorative 
oratory were delivered while he was the official representative 
of this Society. The oration at Plymouth in 1870 came mid- 
way in his Presidency, and was followed in the next ten or 
eleven years by the centennial for the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and the address at Yorktown. To these must be 
added a long list of addresses delivered on less memorable 
occasions in the same third of a century, which would have 
secured reputation for any other orator, and which together 
form a collection of permanent interest and value. It was in 
the same fruitful period that he published the two volumes of 
the Life and Letters of John Winthrop, to which all future 
students of our earliest colonial history must turn, as they do to 
Winthrop's own journal, to complete the half-told story of a 
great life and of the beginnings of the Massachusetts Colony. 

Of what Mr. Winthrop did in political life as a member of 
our State Legislature or in Congress, of what he did in behalf 
of organized charity and to alleviate the sufferings of helpless 
childhood, of what he did to raise the standard of theological 
education in his own religious body, as President of the Mas- 
sachusetts Bible Society, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees 
of the Peabody Education Fund, and in the various ways in 
which a public-spirited citizen makes his influence felt, much 
has been said, or will be said, here and elsewhere ; but all 
reference to what he did in these ways has been left for 
others, in order that emphasis might be laid on his relation 
to the purposes for which this Society was founded. If you 
seek for his monument here, you need only look around these 
rooms, and read the record of his devoted service in the long 
line of our Collections and Proceedings, to which he so largely 
contributed. 

Dr. Samuel A. Gkeen spoke as follows : — 

Wiien death comes to a man full of years and full of honors, 
who has led a spotless life, and whose bodily frame has be- 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 17 

come enfeebled by the infirmities of age, his departure is not 
an event for sorrow, but rather an occasion for devout gratitude 
that he was spared during so many years. The noble example 
of such a man is as lasting as the countless ages of time, and 
is never lost, for the continuity of life keeps up the thread of 
connection. Of this type of manhood Mr. Winthrop was an 
eminent instance ; and he illustrated in his own character so 
many sides of a distinguished career that it is somewhat em- 
barrassing to select that particular setting in which he shone 
the most, as he was so brilliant in them all. The world at 
large knew him under the manifold aspect of a ripe scholar, a 
wise statesman, a finished orator, and a Christian philanthro- 
pist ; but at this time I shall speak of his work solely in con- 
nection with the Peabody Education Fund, that noble trust 
founded to promote the cause of popular education in certain 
States of the American Union. To the casual or careless ob- 
server it might seem that labors in this rough and uninviting 
field were beneath the attention and dignity of a man who 
had filled so many high ofBces, but this view of the case 
would be superficial. 

When George Peabody was putting into definite shape the 
long-cherished plan to distribute in his native land a large 
share of his princely fortune in token of his gratitude for the 
many blessings that had been showered upon him, Mr. Win- 
throp was the first person with whom he held long and confi- 
dential relations on the subject. For months before the letter 
of gift was written to the Board of Trustees, he had been in 
close correspondence with Mr. Winthrop in regard to the 
matter ; and for the successful beginning of his great bene- 
faction it was fortunate that Mr. Peabody had the advice of 
such a counsellor, which on the one side was freely given, 
and on the other as readily accepted. At an early day an 
Act of Incorporation was obtained from the Legislature of 
the State of New York, under which his almoners were cre- 
ated a body by the name and title of " The Trustees of the 
Peabody Education Fund." By this Act Mr. Winthrop was 



18 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

made permanent Chairman of the Board ; and it is needless to 
say that the duties of an office were never better or more con- 
scientiously performed. His care and forethought were seen 
equally in the larger affairs of the Trust, and in the details of 
its minutest business. No subject ever came up for consider- 
ation which did not receive his most thoughtful attention, 
and his counsels always carried great weight. Outside of 
the domestic circle, his loss will be felt nowhere to a greater 
degree than among the members of that corporation, who 
looked to him for practical suggestions. 

When Mr. Peabody's gift was made, the Southern States 
were staggering under many burdens, both financial and politi- 
cal, resulting from the effects of the Civil War ; and the cause 
of popular education was met everywhere by obstacles that 
were then considered almost insuperable. Public schools were 
unknown in those States ; and, with the sparse population of 
the neighborhood, it was very difficult to introduce a plan 
which would lead up to such a system. Entangled with the 
question was the presence of a large class of unfortunate 
beings, thoroughly lacking in all kinds of mental training, 
for which they themselves in no way were responsible ; and 
this element complicated a free solution of the problem. 

At that time, without some aid and encouragement from 
the outside world, it is very uncertain what course of action 
would have been taken in order to ward off the evils. The 
fact was recognized, however, that popular education was the 
proper remedy for the troubles ; and Mr. Peabody's benefac- 
tion, coming in the nick of time, turned the scale in the right 
direction. The number of schools and colleges at the South 
helped from the income of the Education Fund in former 
years was very large ; but at the present time the distribution 
is confined to institutions of a high grade, or is used to supply 
courses of instruction and lectures among teachers in the sev- 
eral States. The testimony of the various Superintendents of 
Education in those States has always been strong and unani- 
mous in regard to the practical help thus given. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 19 

In the autumn of 1886 a Training School for Teachers, 
under the charge of Professor David B. Johnson, was estab- 
lished at Columbia, South Carolina, which was named after 
Mr. Winthrop, in recognition of his eminent services in behalf 
of the cause of popular education at the South. In December, 
1887, the school was incorporated by an Act of the General 
Assembly, and from that time till the present it has continued 
to grow in the number of its students and in general pros- 
perity. To-day it stands one of the largest and most success- 
ful institutions in any part of the country for the training of 
young women as teachers. A touching tribute to the memory 
of Mr. Winthrop, on the part of the officers and students, is 
shown in their custom of keeping the anniversary of his birth as 
a holiday, and of celebrating the event in a manner befitting 
the occasion. This school, now known as the Winthrop Nor- 
mal and Industrial College of South Carolina, has far outgrown 
its original limits; and at the present time a large and commo- 
dious structure is in process of building at Rock Hill, of which 
the corner-stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies on the 
last birthday of Mr. Winthrop. 

In his Annual Report, made at the end of 1893, President 
Johnson recalls the fact that this institution, now in the way 
of becoming so conspicuous and destined to such high ends, was 
originally organized without State recognition through finan- 
cial help from the Peabody Education Fund. 

It may be worthy of note, also, that Mr. Winthrop's last 
formal production of a literary character was an address pre- 
pared for the Annual Meeting of the Trustees of the Educa- 
tion Fund in New York, on October 4, when he expected to 
be present and to deliver it himself, but owing to the infirmities 
of age was unable to attend. The paper, written only a few 
weeks before his death, was read at the meeting, and showed 
on the part of the writer no signs of mental weakness ; and it 
was marked by all that felicity of expression and vigor of style 
which so peculiarly belonged to him on such occasions. 

In many prominent walks of life Mr. Winthrop's efforts have 



20 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

long been conspicuous, but in the humbler fields of usefulness 
his labors have been equally important, and in after-years 
they will place his name high up on the roll of those men who 
have served mankind in their day and generation, and have 
reached distinction through their philanthropic work. The 
foresight of a statesman is clearly shown throughout Mr. 
Peabody's great scheme, which did more than legislation 
could have done to close up the rifts caused by many a 
deadly struggle between brothers of the same household, 
friends of the same neighborhood, and citizens of a common 
country. For these delicate touches the London banker was 
indebted to the sagacity of the gentleman who by his pres- 
ence so often graced the meetings in this room. Statecraft 
will save when doubt will destroy. 

Mr. Henry Lee said : — 

Mr. President, — Eighty-five years ago, the old town of Bos- 
ton was not a sojourn but a dwelling-place, year in and year 
out, from birth to death, from generation to generation. 

Its citizens not only lived in, but for their town ; on it were 
concentrated their affections ; they observed all anniversaries, 
they participated in all solemnities and festivities, they dis- 
charged divers duties now delegated to paid substitutes. 

In my school and college days Mr. Winthrop was coming 
forward, and among the figures of the past none is more dis- 
tinct than his, because of the part he played in all pageants, 
and because of his handsome face and figure which made his 
part attractive. 

I admired him marching at the head of the Harvard Wash- 
ington Corps ; later as captain of the Boston Light Infantry, 
famed for its spirit and for its series of handsome young ofii- 
cers ; later still in perfection as senior aide-de-camp succes- 
sively to three governors. 

These positions he owed to his name and to his external 
graces ; these were but the trappings, he had that within 
which passeth show. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 21 

While captain of the Harvard Washington Corps, he was 
chum of Charles Emerson, the most remarkable of the remark- 
able brothers, and he had the third oration at his graduation. 

While aide-de-camp, he was elected a member, and before 
his time Speaker, of the House of Representatives ; then Mem- 
ber of Congress, where he rapidly came to the front. 

While on the staff of Governor Everett, he was wont to at- 
tend the dinners of the Cadets, and to gratify us not only by 
his comely presence, but also by his graceful oratory, vying 
with that of his eloquent chief. A stately figure, a dignified 
manner, a mellifluous voice, gave effect to his words. 

After Mr. Everett, we have had no orator who has irradiated 
so many occasions, local and national, with historic research 
and sage reflections presented in clear and euphonious speech. 

I allude to three of these orations, not because of their rela- 
tive superiority, but because they serve to illustrate, — his 
Bunker Hill oration, his power to reinvest with interest a 
subject already exhaustively treated ; his oration at York- 
town, his skill in weaving as on a Brussels carpet loom the 
intricate web so as to assign to the many actors in that siege 
— French, British, and American — their places, and to set 
forth their characteristics, and yet not to impede the flow of 
the narrative ; the address on the Centennial of the Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, his fulness and readiness. Called upon 
in an exigency, with but twenty-four hours' notice, he gave 
an interesting review of the century's record, and discrimi- 
nating eulogies on its most eminent members. It could not 
have been more complete, more finished, if he had taken a 
month instead of a day for preparation. 

But what repeated proofs of these qualities has he not given 
at the monthly meetings of this Society during the thirty years 
of his presidency ! 

A letter received, a document unearthed, a lost member to 
lament, an anniversary to commemorate, — some opportunity 
offered or created, was improved by him. 

His learning, his extensive intercourse and correspondence 



22 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

with interesting men at home and abroad, stored in a tena- 
cious memory ready for use, enabled him to invest the subject, 
whatever it might be, with interest, and each time to renew 
our admiration. 

Many of us can claim descent from the magistrates and 
clergy of the first generation, but unless we bear their names, 
our claim is disputed ; we are virtually disinherited, we are not 
identified with them. John Winthrop had many living de- 
scendants who had thus lost their inheritance. Those who 
were heirs of the name as of the blood, had passed away 
from this vicinity. 

Mr. Winthrop had six brothers, whom some can remember 
as handsome, stalwart men, but he outlived them all. 

So it came about that he was left the sole representative in 
Boston of the family in his generation ; and his identity with 
his great ancestor was, as it were, thrust upon him. 

When he was born, the contour of the peninsula (for hap- 
pily it was still a peninsula) had been preserved ; it was the 
Boston depicted by Emerson, — 

" The rocky nook with hill-tops three 

Looked eastward from the farms, 
And twice each day the flowing sea 

Took Boston in its arms," — 

a fascinating semi-rural sea-girt town, retaining many features 
of its old colonial days. The houses stood mostly apart in 
their gardens, some of them associated with historic names. 

Born in one of these old homes, the first objects which met 
his eyes as he was held to the window were the Old South 
Meeting House and its parsonage standing on the Governor's 
Green, the home of his ancestor, the wise and beneficent 
founder of the town and State. 

The contemplation of this ancestral ground, the sight of 
old houses which this ancestor had entered, family traditions, 
the reading of Winthrop's Journal, must have tended to as- 
sociate the past with the present, and to impress upon him 
his birthright. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 23 

If, as aide-de-camp, he rode beside the governor as he re- 
viewed the troops on Boston Common, he must have recalled 
the day when the two regiments in the bay were mustered on 
that same Common — led, the one by his ancestor. Governor 
Winthrop, the other by the deputy, Governor Dudley, who 
was equally his ancestor — to perform their warlike exercises. 

He could not, as an ofl&cer of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery, receive or resign his spontoon without remembering 
that it was his ancestor who had bestowed the charter and 
who had presided over these annual ceremonies. 

He could hardly attend a meeting of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society without hearing our first governor quoted 
or referred to. 

What a beautiful manifestation of filial piety was his edit- 
ing and writing the " Life and Times of John Winthrop," at 
once a romance and a history, giving a fascinating picture of 
the life of the lawyer of the Temple and the lord of the Manor 
of Groton, surrounded by attached friends and kindred ; and 
of his forsaking all this to " runne an hazard with them of an 
hard and meane condition," by agreeing to " pass the seas, to 
inhabit and continue in New England " ; of the tender part- 
ing and happy reunion of the husband and wife, and of the 
multifarious cares and trials and achievements of the gentle, 
wise, magnanimous man and magistrate, during his nineteen 
years here. 

Mr. Winthrop was " given to hospitality " ; he received his 
friends, his friendly acquaintances, and his fellow-citizens on 
appropriate occasions with that nice gradation of manner of 
which he was master ; he entertained strangers of rank and 
distinction in the full sense of that word, and he leaves no 
successor with the inclination and the ability to take his 
place. 

The proud little sea-girt town has sprawled out into a dis- 
jected city ; its picturesque profile and outline are gone ; the 
waves no more beat against the Neck, — there is no Neck ; 
the old James Bowdoin house was long ago wiped away, its acre 



24 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

of garden covered with buildings ; the English Puritans are 
displaced by men of strange speech and customs, and, bowed 
down by infirmities, the last of the Boston Winthrops of his 
generation has followed the long line of his ancestors from the 
first governor, and faded from our sight. 

Mr. Hamilton A. Hill said : — 

I shall confine my remarks to one of Mr. Winthrop's his- 
torical addresses. 

It was my good fortune to be a member of the executive 
and legislative party which accompanied Governor Long to 
Yorktown in October, 1881, to take part in the centennial 
celebration of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to tlie allied 
armies of America and France. On this occasion, Mr. Win- 
throp was the orator, and it was his last appearance, I believe, 
before a large audience ; his oration on the completion of the 
Washington Monument, in 1885, was delivered by proxy. 

The Yorktown celebration was for every reason a memo- 
rable one. Among those present were the governors and high 
officials of the original thirteen States, and of many of the 
States subsequently admitted to the Union ; General Sher- 
man, Admiral Porter, and other officers of the army and navy 
who had distinguished themselves in the War of the Rebel- 
lion ; representatives, as guests of the nation, of the French 
and German officers who participated in the siege of Yorktown 
and who witnessed the surrender ; and President Arthur, who 
only a month before had succeeded to the chief magistracy on 
the death of President Garfield. The new president had not 
had time to construct his cabinet, and was accompanied 
by Mr. Blaine, Mr. Lincoln, and other members of the late 
administration who were holding over at his request. 

The recent national bereavement, as Mr. Winthrop said, 
had " thrown a pall of deepest tragedy upon the falling cur- 
tain of our first century " ; it cast its shadow over the York- 
town celebration, and gave an undertone of sadness to the 
oration. " I cannot forget," said the orator, " that as I left 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 25 

President Garfield after a friendly visit at the Executive 
Mansion last May, his parting words to me were, 'Yes, I 
shall be with you at Yorktown.' We all miss him and mourn 
him here to-day." 

Amons other features of the celebration, which continued 
through three days, were the presence in the river of a large 
number of vessels of war, conspicuous among which were 
Farragut's ship, the " Franklin," and Winslow's, the " Kear- 
sarge " ; a review of ten thousand troops, regulars and militia, 
by General Hancock ; and the laying of the foundation-stone 
of a monument decreed by Congress in 1781, but never be- 
gun until now. The 19th of October was the great day, when, 
after addresses by President Arthur, M. Outrey, French Am- 
bassador at Washington, the Marquis de Rochambeau, and 
Baron von Steuben, Mr. Winthrop pronounced the oration 
which he had been invited to deliver by the Committee of 
Congress. These exercises took place in a temporary build- 
ing erected for the occasion, decorated with the flags of the 
United States, France, and Germany, but otherwise bare and 
rude. The ceremonial, however, was not dependent upon 
any accessories for its dignity and impressiveness ; for, as 
Mr. Winthrop said, " the theme and the theatre were above 
the highest art." 

At my request, Governor Long has given his remembrance 
of the day in a few words, as follows : " I vividly recall Mr. 
Winthrop, as he appeared at Yorktown as orator there at the 
centennial celebration in 1881. It was the full corn in the 
ear, the noble presence of a man, past threescore and ten 
indeed, yet so vigorous and graceful in his manly ripeness, so 
courteous, dignified, and gentle in his manners, and of such 
impressive intellectual stamp, that he was easily the central 
commanding figure of the scene. He seemed to be a striking 
type of the orator of forty years ago, — the contemporary of 
Everett, — a Massachusetts scholar and gentleman." 

Mr. Archibald Forbes, the well-known English correspond- 
ent, thus described the scene : " Perhaps the decorum of tlie 



26 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

throng was equalled by its evident intelligence. To the very 
end of Mr. Winthrop's prolonged oration, all around the fringes 
of the audience were to be observed people with their hands 
at their ears, jealous lest a word should escape them. No 
point made by the speaker was missed, or failed to obtain its 
fullest meed of appreciation. During Mr. Winthrop's fervid 
and eloquent peroration, the intenseness of attention on the 
orator's words was so close that you might have heard a pin 
drop. The people had come to listen, and they listened with 
all their force." 

Mr. Forbes was impressed by the great tact displayed by 
Mr. Winthrop in his references to Great Britain, and by " his 
hearty and unaffected expressions of loving good-will for ' Old 
Mother England,' " as he called her. " To-day," he wrote, 
*' afforded fresh proof that a warm heart is the truest guide 
to good taste." 

Mr. Winthrop was in excellent voice, and delivered the 
oration in his best style. This was the more gratifying and the 
more remarkable, because, owing to the poverty of the arrange- 
ments, the absence of proper care for the guests, and the gen- 
eral confusion, he, in common with many others, had been 
obliged to suffer discomforts, if not positive hardships, which 
in his case particularly must have taxed severely his powers 
of endurance, and which might easily have embarrassed him 
in the discharge of the responsible and exacting duty to which 
he was called. It was said of him and the other speakers, 
'' Their words will live when the trifling annoyances of the 
hour are forgotten " ; but it is only justice to him to recall at 
this time the serious disadvantages in the midst of which a 
great oratorical success was achieved. 

The Yorktown oration is generally recognized, I believe, as 
one of Mr. Winthrop's noblest discourses. The story of the 
events which led up to the siege and the surrender, is graphi- 
cally told ; and a competent critic has said that no more note- 
worthy gallery has ever been painted than the series of 
portraits which he has here sketched of the men of the va- 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 27 

rious nationalities who on either side were prominent in the 
conflict. It is safe to say that there was no one living except 
himself who possessed in combination the personal knowledge 
and the acquired information necessary for such truthful and 
brilliant portraiture. And, all unconsciously, in this work 
of delineation, the speaker has given to us an illustration of 
something very characteristic of himself. His heart was so 
thoroughly under the influence of that charity that " hopeth 
all things," that nil nisi honum was his rule of speech concern- 
ing both the living and the dead. He was always ready to say 
a kindly, pleasant, and graceful thing, when this did not in- 
volve the obliteration of moral distinctions. At Yorktown, 
while there was no breath of extenuation for the treason of 
Benedict Arnold, the wilful and obstinate king, of whom an 
English historian has not hesitated to say that "the darkest 
hour of English history lies wholly at his door," was thus 
gently dealt with : " Who doubts that good old George IH. 
spoke from his conscience, as well as from his heart, when he 
said so touchingly to John Adams, on receiving him as the 
first American minister at the Court of St. James, ' I have 
done nothing in the late contest but what I thought myself 
indispensably bound to do by the duty which I owed my 
people ' ? " 

The tribute to the character and services of Lafayette was 
doubly impressive, as spoken by one who, as he told his 
audience, had " personally felt the warm pressure of his own 
hand and received a benediction from his own lips," under 
the parental roof nearly sixty years before ; who had seen 
the private letter written to President Monroe by the 
French patriot, from Yorktown, October 20, 1824, describing 
his visit to the place on the forty-third anniversary of the 
surrender ; and who had learned from the lips of James 
Madison, during a visit to him not many years before his 
death, to think and speak of Lafayette, not merely as an 
ardent lover of liberty, " but as a man of eminent practical 
ability, and as great, in all true senses of that term, as he was 
chivalrous and generous and good." 



28 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

The words of counsel, of warning, and of hope with which 
the oration closed, could have been prompted only by lofty 
patriotism and an unswerving Christian faith. The cause of 
education, in which Mr. Winthrop had been heartily enlisted 
for many years, and which was especially dear to him to his 
latest days, was most earnestly presented in its relations to 
the prosperity and perpetuity of the republic. " Universal 
education," he said, and let us remember that he said this on 
the soil of Virginia, " without distinction of race, must be en- 
couraged, aided, and enforced. The elective franchise can 
never be taken away from any of those to whom it has once 
been granted, but we can and must make education co-exten- 
sive with the elective franchise ; and it must be done without 
delay, as a measure of self-defence, and with the general co- 
operation of the authorities and of the people of the whole 
country." And again : " Slavery is but half abolished, eman- 
cipation is but half completed, while millions of freemen with 
votes in their hands are left without education." It seems 
proper to record side by side with these impressive words a 
sentence written in preparation for the annual meeting of the 
Trustees of the Peabody Fund in October last. After refer- 
ring to public events which had been discouraging and de- 
pressing during the oflBcial year then closing, Mr. Winthrop 
added : " Meantime we may well rejoice that the great cause 
of popular education, so far as it is in our hands, and which is 
the basis of all our best hopes for the future, has met with no 
check." " Popular education, — the basis of all our best 
hopes for the future " ; this was the latest utterance of a long- 
cherished conviction, which found its most memorable and 
perhaps its noblest expression at Yorktown thirteen years 
before. 

Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., spoke in substance 
as follows : — 

Unfamiliarity with the custom of this Society upon such 
occasions is my apology for speaking informally and without 
notes. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 29 

The fact that Mr. Winthrop was more than a generation 
older than myself limits my associations with him to the later 
years of his life. His remarkable career in the House and 
Senate of the United States is pure history to me. At the 
same time this very fact suggests one interesting feature of his 
character ; for, though of an earlier generation, his sympa- 
thies were strong with the life and people of the present day, 
— though in thought and manner of the old school, he 
counted among his many friends those whose chief interests 
are in the immediate problems of life. 

To the boys of a generation ago, Mr. Winthrop stood as a 
stately representative of what was most dignified in American 
life. I can remember him driving through Brookline, or a 
guest in my father's house, as subduing us with deep reverence 
for his character. The fact that he was to be a guest made of 
the entertainment an occasion. His entrance into the room 
gave dignity to the whole company. 

To see Mr. Winthrop reverently worshipping in Trinity 
Church, Boston, was to the boys of that generation an object 
lesson in the essential unity of statesmanship and Christian 
manhood. In his religious associations he was a Churchman, 
or, as he would prefer to say, a humble and unworthy follower 
of his Lord, Jesus Christ, finding his most helpful religious 
associations in the Episcopal Church. For his hold on the 
Church was not so much through logical conviction as through 
deep sympathy with its principles and traditions. By bonds 
which are often stronger than logic, the conditions of inherit- 
ance, associations, taste, and temperament, the essential ele- 
ments of the Church were inwrought into the texture of his 
character. He never allowed his Churchmanship to limit his 
sympathies with Christians of other names, and he counted 
among his dearest friends the leading members of many other 
Christian bodies. His devotion to the parishes of Trinity 
Church, Boston, and St. Paul's Church, Brookline, was strong 
and faithful. Phillips Brooks was his frequent guest and con- 
stant friend. Mr. Winthrop was for sixty years a member of 



30 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OP 

the vestry of Trinity Church, Boston. At several sessions of 
the General Convention of the Episcopal Church he was a dele- 
gate from the Diocese of Massachusetts, and took an honorable 
part in the discussions and legislations of the Church. His 
simple faith and evangelical spirit, together with his dignity 
of bearing, culture, and chivalric temper, combined in one 
personality the best elements of the puritan and the cavalier. 

Mr. Winthrop's religious faith was also revealed in a life of 
charity. His great work in connection with the Peabody 
Education Fund has already been alluded to. He was for 
twenty-five years the President of the Boston Provident Asso- 
ciation, and for a number of years President of the Massachu- 
setts Bible Society and of the Children's Hospital. He held 
positions of responsibility in many other associations. As an 
Overseer of the Poor in Boston for several years, he devoted 
much thought and time to the problems of pauperism and 
poverty, even in their minutest details. 

When Mr. Benjamin T. Reed founded the Episcopal Theo- 
logical School in Cambridge a little over twenty-five years 
ago, Mr. Winthrop was one of the few gentlemen whom he 
called to his counsel and aid. During his last years he was 
the only surviving member of the original Board of Trustees, 
and for over ten years he was the President. The School 
marked its twenty-fifth anniversary by the erection of Win- 
throp Hall, given by patrons of the School in recognition of 
Mr. Winthrop's services to the institution. Built of stone, of 
English academic architecture, dignified and set back from 
the street, the Hall is a fitting memorial of one who had so 
deep an interest in all that Cambridge with its University and 
other institutions represents. 

Allow me to close these informal remarks with a few words 
which suggest one or two other features of his character. In 
exceptional characters we are often asked to pardon certain 
weaknesses and breaches of true courtesy, but Mr. Winthrop 
pardoned none such in himself. Though the sweep of his 
interests was large, he allowed no details to be neglected. 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 31 

As the presiding oflBcer of many associations he was not a 
mere figure-head, but he gave freely of his time and thought to 
the smaller as well as to the larger responsibilities of his posi- 
tion. Courtesy to the least detail was an essential element in 
his character. Even in his later years, upon the entrance into 
the room of a young man, Mr. Winthrop would struggle to 
his feet in order that he might meet him with dignity and full 
courtesy. Bishop Brooks used to say that one test of Christian 
charity was to be found in a legible handwriting. Under 
this test Mr. Winthrop stood high, and of the hundreds of let- 
ters that he wrote one will rarely find an erasure, but always 
the free hand and the easy style of a true gentleman. 

Mr. Charles Francis Adams then said : — 

Although the present is a regular meeting of the Society, 
held at the stated time, and notified in no unusual way, it is, 
I presume, well understood that we are here to despatch no 
business of routine, — to listen to no papers on general topics. 
We have come with but one thought, our obligation as a 
Society to Mr. Winthrop ; and to bear witness to the personal 
and even affectionate regard we feel for the man. 

Yet the occasion is not what I would have had it. I am, of 
course, aware, as I presume all here are aware, that, in pur- 
suing this somewhat commonplace course, we are acting in 
deference to Mr. Winthrop's understood wishes, as expressed 
through members of his immediate family. He, who had for 
so long been such an overshadowing personality in these 
rooms, had come to look upon himself as more or less a mem- 
ory, — a shade from the past in them, — indeed, to many of 
those who gather here only as a fading tradition, — and accord- 
ingly he thought best to intimate a desire that his death should 
be noticed in no unusual way; for, in his own estimate, he 
had alread}^ long passed from the scene. 

For one, it does not to me so seem, — far otherwise. In 
this matter, therefore, — while careful to pay all due deference 
to Mr. Winthrop's slightest wish, — the Society, I thought, 



32 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

owed something to itself. It is under a debt of obligation to 
him which made Mr. Winthrop — no matter how long he 
might live or how completely the advance of age might sepa- 
rate him from us — ever and always our first and most prom- 
inent member, — in spirit and by general acceptance, as well 
as in fact, the head of our roll. Any exceptional respect we 
could pay his memory became therefore our privilege, from 
which deference could not debar us. We owed on this occa- 
sion something to ourselves and to our own feelings. My 
wish, therefore, was that now, as in the cases of Mr. Deane 
and Mr. Parkman, the tribute of the Society should be em- 
phasized, and should go upon its records with all possible form 
and solemnity. It was decided otherwise ; and I regretfully 
concurred in the decision. Individually, I claim my privilege 

now. 

Of Mr. "Winthrop, I propose to speak as one of Us, — as for 
more than fifty years a member of this Society and for thirty 
years its President; but first I want to say a few words of 
another aspect of his character, and to me a most attractive 
aspect. As we go on in life, — as little by little we rid our- 
selves of the ambitions, the hungry craving and the eager self- 
assertions of youth, and, accepting the position the world 
assigns to us, one by one instinctively in our turn label our 
cotemporaries, as we put them away in the pigeon-holes of 
memory, — as we do this, I say, we come more and more to 
realize that with men the essential thing, after all, is not what 
they do, but what they are. In the course of a long life the 
inner nature is surely revealed, whether in success or in adver- 
sity ; and better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh 
a city. Much reference has been made since Mr. Wiuthrop's 
death to his connection with public life, — so brilliant in its 
beginning, and so soon, so long since, brought to an abrupt and 
early close. It was to public life that Mr. Winthrop first 
devoted himself; it was to that he felt a call; and, to the call, 
he answered. His course was at the outset, and long, a suc- 
cession of triumphs ; — Speaker of the Massachusetts House 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 33 

of Representatives at 29 ; member of Congress at 31 ; Speaker 
of the National House of Representatives at 38 ; United States 
Senator at 41 ; there seemed no prize of pubhc life to which 
he might not with reason as well as confidence aspire. All 
this was so long ago that the generation which knew of it has 
quite passed away ; but, a legend now, it was none the less a 
reality then. Those even of fifty years do not realize, and 
when told will hardly credit, the possibilities of both office 
and influence which then seemed open to Mr. Winthrop, — 
waiting for him to grasp them. To appreciate these possi- 
bilities one must go back out of the present, — back through 
the forty-year deluge of events, — to the half-forgotten mem- 
ories or the unfamiliar records of what has become already an 
historic — almost a remote — past. There was, for instance, 
little in common between Robert Charles Winthrop and John 
Greenleaf Whittier ; yet in July, 1854, Whittier, a man of 47, 
wrote to Emerson thus of Winthrop,^ a man of 45, " I may 
be mistaken, but I fully believe that Robert C. Winthrop holds 
in his hands the destiny of the North," — and he then goes on 
to point out how, by pursuing a certain political course, Mr. 
Winthrop might fix the attitude of New England on the great 
issue of the day. And even now, looking back bej'^ond the 
far different event, it seems to me the Quaker poet, who was 
not lacking in political shrewdness, had reason for his faith. 
He clearly saw in the impending upheaval the possibility for 
Mr. Winthrop to take that course in New England politics 
which at the very time Mr. Seward actually did take in the 
politics of New York. As is evident now also, the opportunity 
did exist. 

This is no time to consider why Mr. Winthrop did not see 
his way to grasp the great occasion. I will merely say that I 
do not think his were the temper and the cast of mind to grapple 
with the conditions of the time in which his lot was then cast. 
He was by nature adapted for more orderly surroundings, more 
formal and regular events; and, just as two centuries earlier 

1 Pickard, Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier, p. 371. 



34 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OP 

and on another but not dissimilar stage, Hyde and Falkland 
gave way to Pym and Vane, so in 1854 the trained and more 
moderate public characters of the earlier period were forced 
into the background by the fiercer energy of those by Nature 
selected to do the rough, stern work then in hand to be done. 

This Mr. Winthrop could at the time hardly see ; nor did 
others, I remember, see it more clearly than he. Checked in 
the full swim of success and thrown out of public life in 1851, 
when only forty-two years of age, Mr. Winthrop had a right to 
suppose that in his chosen career he had sustained a mere tem- 
porary reverse. And I remember well a remark of my father's 
to me, — for, boy though I then was, I took an intense interest 
in the politics of the day, — I well remember, I say, a remark 
of my father's, who, at the time, was strenuous on the opposite 
side to Mr. Winthrop, to the effect that, so far as Mr. Webster 
was concerned, at his advanced age Mr. Sumner's election to 
the Senate was a final and fatal political blow ; but as for Mr. 
Winthrop, he added, " he has only, like every one else in poli- 
tics, had a stroke of ill-luck, — the wheel will turn again." 
But, for Mr. Winthrop, the political wheel never did turn 
again ; it stopped midway in his life, and it stopped when 
its movement was fast, and seemed sure. 

Then it was that the man's nature, coming to the surface, 
slowly asserted itself for what it was worth. His chosen career 
was thenceforth closed to him ; and hope deferred maketh sick 
the heart. To others belonged the prizes which had seemed 
within his sure grasp ; and, at the age when to most life only 
just begins to move on assured lines, the path closed for him. 
He was destined thenceforth, a mere looker-on, to watch the 
chosen arena in which it was no longer his to strive. The 
acid of disappointment is to man's nature a test not less severe 
than the intoxication of success ; and, under such circum- 
stances, the poorer nature is apt to evince bitterness, to indulge 
in covert criticism, if not open attack, — to repine over lost 
opportunities, and give way to discouragement and sloth. 
With Mr. Winthrop there was none of this. Accepting the 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 35 

situation, dignified in defeat, he set to work in the narrower 
field to which the chances of poHtical life had consigned him, 
and in that field made himself supremely useful; nor this alone, 
as the years passed on he became ever more dignified, more 
gracious and more kindly in bearing and in speech, more chary 
of criticism and more aidful in action. Like good wine, he 
ever, even to the late end, improved with age. What more 
or better could be said ? — It is not what we do, but what we 
are ; and better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh 
a city. 

But it is of Mr. Winthrop as member and President of this 
Society, and not of Mr. Winthrop as a political character, that 
I have said I more especially proposed to speak. As its Pres- 
ident through thirty years, — a third part nearly of its entire 
existence at the time he resigned the position, — the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society owes to Mr. Winthrop a debt of 
obligation hard to overstate and impossible for it to pay. He 
gave it form, consistence, character, dignity, momentum. For 
such a Society as this, he was, too, an ideal head ; for not 
only did he possess every essential attribute, but he pos- 
sessed each attribute in a high degree. The descendant of 
him correctly known as "the Father of New England," a 
patrician, a distinguished orator, an author as well as a care- 
ful historical investigator, a courteous and dignified presiding 
officer having the interests of the Society always at heart, 
Mr. Winthrop had not only means and a universally recog- 
nized social position, but in a marked degree also he had what 
is known as the social faculty. So he loved to dispense a gen- 
erous hospitality ; and as one passed through his doors, there 
came the feeling that he who entertained us was to the man- 
ner born, and that the Society participated in, was in itself 
a part of, all that he had or was. As our President he thus 
constantly magnified the position ; and in so doing he magni- 
fied our Society. Unless I greatly err, also, Mr. Winthrop, so 
far as this organization was concerned, had an ideal which he 
more than any man I have ever met was qualified to realize^ 



86 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

had fate been propitious to him, — a loft}' ideal ; but he was 
for himself and the work he thought to do not fortunate, — 
he was a day too late in public life, a day too early in the evo- 
lution of learned societies. He should have been the Presi- 
dent of the American Academy ; and the time for the Ameri- 
can Academy has not yet come. 

And when I speak of the American Academy, 1 have in 
mind something which has not yet assumed form, — some- 
thing which our material and political conditions have in fact 
hitherto not favored, and may render for a long time, perhaps 
forever, impracticable. I am of those who think that neither 
democracy, as it is called, nor democratic methods, have to do 
with literature, science, or art. These, in their highest form, 
are the ultimate results of a great concentration of life, wealth, 
and thought, — of evolution, and the survival of the intellect- 
ual fittest. Just as there is no royal road, so there is no popu- 
lar path to true learning, or correct observation, or refined taste. 
Instead of developing on our political lines, therefore, and 
seeking expansion in the largest possible membership, as has 
been too often the case with the so-called learned societies of 
this country, the Academy should, it seems to me, run directly 
counter to those lines, and seek to concentrate in itself only 
the last and best results of educational effort. It is member- 
ship in the Academy that should be sought; and not members 
for it. It was such a society as this, I think, that Mr. Win- 
throp had ever in mind ; a Society the seal of which should 
be recognized as a mint mark ; a Society an election to which 
should be to an American what an election to the Academy is 
to a Frenchman, — the blue ribbon of lettere. And surely, no 
American of his day was so well qualified as Mr. Winthrop to 
guide the policy and preside at the sittings of such a Society. 
Industrious, methodical and learned, — grave, eloquent, digni- 
fied and courteous — coming of a distinguished ancestry to 
which he himself gave new distinction, a leader in social life, — 
he naturally assumed leadership there, and that leadership was 
tacitlv conceded to him. Thus endowed, he did much for us ; 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 37 

unfortunately, we could not in return give him a theatre suffi- 
cient for the full display. The stage at best was narrow, and 
his audience small. 

I have said that Mr. Winthrop was essentially a patrician ; 
and in his case that word implies a great deal, — far more than 
at once appears. More than any man I ever met, with the 
exception possibly of the late President Quincy, Mr. Winthrop 
filled the conception of what an hereditary peer in the best 
English sense should be ; but, far more than Mr, Quincy, with 
his robust, fiery energy, Mr. Winthrop gave one the idea of 
being in this country somewhat out of place, — he was a little 
declasse. He had to make his own position ; in England he 
would have found it made for him, and he would have filled 
it to perfection. He would have been in his native element 
in the House of Lords, and, there, a potent factor for good. 
It would have been the same in social life ; on the platform of 
the learned or scientific association ; at the council board. He 
would have worn his robes and upheld his coronet Avith grace 
and native ease, as one born to them. He would have been 
an ideal Speaker of the Commons ; and, as a Lord Lieutenant, 
he would have carried himself as should the representative 
of a Crown. Conscious of the responsibilities as well as of 
the dignity of rank, he would never have forgotten its pres- 
tige or abused its privilege. Thus he would have vindicated 
and justified an aristocracy ; while in a democracy, even though 
born and brought up to it, he was never in all respects fully 
at home. To him the atmosphere was thin and chill. ThouoJi 
he probably never realized it, and might even have warmly, 
though always courteously, have denied the imputation, he 
would have thriven better in another clime, — amid an atmos- 
phere of tradition, recognition, and caste. Craving form and 
state and ritual, he would, as I have said, have conferred 
lustre on an Earldom. 

Thus the going of ^Ir. Winthrop marks a veritable epoch in 
the history of our Society. Through more than twenty years, 
ever since the death of Mr. Savage in March, 1873, his name 



38 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF 

has headed the roll of our membership, his presence has filled 
this room. There is in the possession of the Society a photo- 
graph of its members grouped together in front of Mr. Win- 
throp's home at Brookline on an occasion when, as was his 
wont, he entertained them there on a pleasant day in June 
some thirty years ago. In that group the figure of Mr. 
Winthrop is the central figure, — that about which the others 
seem naturally to arrange themselves ; and one instantly ac- 
cepts the fact, feeling that it was right and proper it should 
be so, — altogether appropriate and in accordance with the 
fitness of things. That photograph was in its arrangement 
typical of the Society, before and then and since. The first 
name is stricken from our list ; the central figure gone from 
our gatherings. 

It lacks now less than six months of a full score of years 
since I first entered these rooms as a member. Mr. Winthrop 
then occupied the chair which you, Sir, now fill ; for yet ten 
years longer he continued to occupy that chair. For the rest, 
the names since one by one dropped from our roll speak for 
themselves ; and they speak too for our Society. Next to 
Mr. Winthrop came my father ; and not far below was Hil- 
lard. Further on were Richard Frothingham, Charles Deane 
and Francis Parkman, a notable trio. The name of John 
Lothrop Motley presently arrested the eye ; and then, in close 
juxtaposition, those of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry 
Wadsworth Longfellow, — par nohile fratrum. Jacob Bigelow 
also was there, with Richard Henry Dana, Russell Lowell and 
Edmund Quincy ; while Rockwood Hoar and Ralph Waldo 
Emerson, the two survivors of the great Concord trium- 
virate, — the first still of us, but, alas! never again to fill 
here his accustomed chair; the last an ever-mightier shade, — 
these two fitly close the great procession. I have said that 
Mr. Winthrop's stage here was narrow and his audience small ; 
but those I have named constitute a goodly company. Then 
they were all living men, — our associates here; associates 
than which no Society whether in the New World or in the Old 



KOBERT C. WINTHBOP. 39 

could boast a choicer array. Orators, statesmen, and diplomats ; 
historians, poets and conversationalists; wits, jurists, philan- 
thropists, philosophers, — they were, and they remain, a galaxy 
the brilliancy of which time will only enhance. They are now 
all names and memories ; but, great and radiant as many of 
them are, they will ever in the memory of us, their survivors 
in this room, group themselves naturally and as of course, 
even as in the photograph I have referred to, about that one 
dignified figure and gracious courtly presence, — the figure 
and the presence of Robert Charles Winthrop. 

The President then asked the members, without adopting a 
formal vote, to express their regard and gratitude to their late 
associate by rising, and all rose. 

The Treasurer, Mr. Charles C. Smith, said that there were 
some matters of business on which it was necessary or desirable 
for the Society to take action at this meeting. As he had 
stated, Mr. Winthrop's bequest of five thousand dollars had 
already been paid into the treasury ; and he accordingly pre- 
sented the following vote, which was unanimously adopted : — 

Voted, That a Fund be created to be called the Robert. C. 
Winthrop Fund, the income whereof shall be expended for 
such purposes as the Council may from time to time direct. 

Our distinguished associate, Senator Hoar, was prevented 
from being present at this meeting, owing to the session of 
Congress ; but the esteem in which he held Mr. Winthrop is 
evidenced by the following letter from him to the latter's son, 
at whose request it is here inserted. 

United States Senate, December 4, 1894. 

My dear Mr. Winthrop, —In spite of your father's four- 
score and five years, and of the fact that few men living can 
remember the time when he was not held to be one of the 
great men of the country, it almost seems as if his death were 
premature. 



40 TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF R. C. WINTHROP. 

His intellect seemed during these last years as vigorous and 
fresh as when he made his first appearance in public on a 
great occasion at the Harvard Centennial in 1836. He was 
our finest example of the grand old name of gentleman, and 
his departure is not merely the end of a great individual 
career, but the severing of the last living tie with a great 
generation. 

While my first political activity was in very earnest oppo- 
sition to the party of which he was one of the most conspicu- 
ous leaders, and while I believe he has never voted for the 
candidates whom I supported, yet I have been in accord with 
him in political opinion in many important particulars, and I 
am gratified and surprised to see how constantly I find author- 
ity and support for the things I believe in some of his public 
utterances. No one who has to speak on any important occa- 
sion on any subject connected with American politics or with 
history or literature should fail to consult your father's four 
volumes of Addresses and Speeches. They are storehouses, 
not only of original thought, but of apt quotation and illus- 
tration ; and in his estimates of the character of his contem- 
poraries or of men of former generations, I hardly recall an 
opinion which does not seem to me wise and sound, as well 
as expressed with unequalled grace and eloquence. 

He always treated me with the greatest consideration and 
courtesy, and I was especially drawn to him from the fact of 
his great esteem for my father, — an esteem which was fully 
reciprocated, — and because of his great affection for Charles 
Emerson, who was the idol of my childhood. There is no 
man left who possesses such a store of rich and abundant 
learning, or such rare oratorical powers, or such dignity and 
grace of personal bearing, as were your father's. 

" The knights are dust." 
I am, with high personal regard, faithfully yours, 

George F. Hoar. 
Robert C. Winthrop, Jr., Esq. 



After the foregoing addresses were in type, and just 
one week from the date of this meeting, the President 
of the Society, Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D., LL.D., 
died suddenly of apoplexy, at his house, 110 Marl- 
borough Street, Boston, in his eighty-first year. 



